Format a 320 GB hard drive for use as my OS boot drive

[TR Young]

I know that I must have WinXP SP1 at the least for XP to be able to handle
drives larger than 180GB, and I am running XP with SP2, so I should be ok
there.

With this being said, here is what I want to accomplish;

I currently have a 30 GB C: drive and a 120GB D: drive. I started having
minor problems with my C: drive, so I purchased a Maxtor 320GB, which came
with software that was SUPPOSED to be able to clone my current C: drive onto
the 320GB drive (as long as I had XP SP1) and I SHOULD be able to boot from
the 320GB drive. Well, after multiple tries, I simply can not get the 320GB
drive to boot. I can clone the files to it with no problems, and I can
access the files that are on it as long as I boot with the 30GB drive, but
the 320GB drive WILL NOT boot. In desparation, I have backed up all my
pertinent files and information to the 120GB drive, and I was going to try
to format the 320GB drive via the software that it came with and install XP
on it.
Is it possible to install XP onto the 320GB drive from within the XP OS that
gets booted into from the 30GB C: drive?

 

[DL]

Assuming the new drive is an IDE drive, ie no sata/raid issues involved.
And that your Bios supports large HD's

After cloning, you shutdown, removed the old boot drive, replacing it with
the new, before rebooting?

You cannot install XP in the way you mention (within the C drive)

 

[AJR]

Usually instructions with a new HD go something like this ; Set the new HD
as slave (after setting pins on the HD as slave) - use software to "clone"
master HD (C).

After "cloning" - reset new HD to function as "master" - replace old HD
(former C) with new HD.

If desired, you can set old HD and install as a slave drive.

Instructions may suggest setting HD pins for CS (cable select) instead of
slave and master.

 

[TR Young]

I have done this, and I get a 'disk read error, please press ctrl-alt-del to
continue.



After cloning, you shutdown, removed the old boot drive, replacing it with
the new, before rebooting?

 

[TR Young]

The instructions said to set both drives to CS.
I have a 120 GB drive that will remain as the D: drive, and the old
(current) 30GB drive will pretty much be a back up in case of a major
failure of the new drive; it'll be put in a box in a safe place.

 

[DL]

Assuming the 320 is the only disk hd connected, is it visible in the bios?
If it is do you have a winxp cd in order to run a repair installation?
(To be safe ensure any other hd's are disconnected)

 

[TR Young]

Yes to both

Assuming the 320 is the only disk hd connected, is it visible in the bios?
If it is do you have a winxp cd in order to run a repair installation?
(To be safe ensure any other hd's are disconnected)

 

[notso slim]

From my experience if you are having this kind of issue make sure the
partition on the new drive is active you can only boot to an actiuve
partition. Then set the 320 drive to master. This quite often will
resolve these type issues.

 

[DL]

So what occurs if you run a repair installation?

Yes to both